This application is entitled to the benefit of and incorporates by reference essential subject matter disclosed in Japanese Patent Application No. 2002-28549 filed on Feb. 5, 2002.
The present invention relates to an automatically opening and closing system for vehicle, which automatically opens and closes an opening/closing member openably and closably mounted on the vehicle through a hinge.
In vehicles such as automobiles or the like, there has conventionally been provided everywhere an opening/closing member openably and closably mounted on a vehicle through a hinge, such as a door, a back door and the like. Particularly, in wagon cars and one-box cars, etc., there are often found ones, each of which is provided with a back door on the rear end of the vehicle to allow for easily loading and unloading, etc. from the rear side thereof. Since the hinge is ordinarily provided at a rear end of a vehicle roof, that is, a ceiling portion of the vehicle with its opening/closing central axis being kept substantially horizontal, such back door is opened and closed between a fully closed state where the back door is substantually perpendicular with respect to the vehicle and a fully opened state where the back door is substantially horizontal with respect to the vehicle, with using this opening/closing central axis as a center. In this case, the back door is lifted in an upward direction of the vehicle, therefore being called a lift gate, a rear hatch or the like.
However, since such back door is often large and heavy, there has particularly been the case where it is difficult for women and children to easily open and close the back door. Also, the back door is largely lifted up when coming to a fully opened state, so that the opening and closing of it become more difficult.
Thereat, under circumstances where one-box cars and the like increase for family use, there appear vehicles equipped with an automatically opening and closing system in the back door so that even women and children can easily open and close it, and there is a trend toward an increase of the number of such cars. Further, if the automatically opening and closing system is provided, then the back door can be remote-controlled even when no hand reaches from a driver""s seat, so that there are many requests for mounting the automatically opening and closing system due to this convenience.
As such an automatically opening and closing system for back door, an actuator unit operated by an electric motor is generally used. The actuator unit is provided with a reciprocating member to be swung or linearly reciprocated by the electric motor, and a linking rod having a base side joint and a tip side joint that are swingably linked to the reciprocating member and the back door, respectively, whereby the opening and closing thereof are performed by transmitting displacement of the reciprocating member to the back door through the linking rod. As an example of a reciprocating member performing swinging motion, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,055,776 discloses one having a sector gear that is rotatably mounted to a pillar of the vehicle with its rotation supporting point being kept substantially horizontal. In this case, a pinion gear, rotation-driven by the electric motor, is engaged with the sector gear, whereby the sector gear performs the swinging motion in a substantially vertical direction with respect to the vehicle, with using the rotation supporting point as a center, by operating the electric motor. The linking rod is linked to the peripheral side of this sector gear, and so the swinging motion of the sector gear is transmitted to the back door through the linking rod to automatically open and close the back door.
Also, as an example of a reciprocating member linearly reciprocating, for example, Japanese Patent Laid open No. 2001-253241 discloses one, which is provided with a rack bar movably disposed axially in an annular and square-shaped channel fixed to the vehicle. In this case, the rack bar is provided with a rack gear aligned axially, and a pinion gear driven by an electric motor is engaged with this rack gear. Therefore, the rack bar is linearly reciprocated axially in the channel by operating the electric motor. The linking rod is linked to this rack bar, and a linear reciprocation of the rack bar is transmitted to the back door through the linking rod to automatically open and close the back door.
Such actuator unit is disposed in the pillar of the rear end of the vehicle, that is, between an exterior panel and an interior trim for vehicle in the pillar. In opening the back door, in the actuator unit utilizing the sector gear a part of the sector gear and the linking rod protrude from a slit formed in the interior trim for vehicle. In contrast, in the actuator unit utilizing the rack bar only the linking rod protrudes from the slit formed in the interior trim for vehicle.
However, in such actuator unit, for example, in the case of the actuator unit utilizing the sector gear, the sector gear has a large radius in order to obtain a predetermined swinging stroke, and the part of the sector gear also protrudes from the slit formed in the interior trim for vehicle at the time of the fully opened state of the back door. For this reason, the slit formed in the interior trim for vehicle also becomes enlarged longitudinally.
Also, in the case of the actuator unit utilizing the rack bar, the actuator unit is mounted in a limited space in the pillar and is disposed so that the moving direction of the rack bar is perpendicular to the vehicle. Therefore, when the back door is opened and closed, the base side joint moves in the vertical direction, that is, in the up and down direction with respect to the vehicle. In contrast to this, the tip side joint, serving as a connecting point of the back door and the linking rod, moves along an arc centered about the opening/closing central axis of the hinge. Therefore, the moving direction of the base side joint is widely different from that of the tip side joint. For this reason, in opening and closing the back door, an angle of the longitudinal direction of the vehicle, which is defined by the linking rod and the moving direction of the rack bar, is largely changed. Thereby, a locus of the linking rod enlarges and the slit formed in the interior trim enlarges, which results in the marring of the appearance of the vehicle.
An object of the present invention is to improve the appearance of a vehicle by reducing an opening formed in an interior trim for vehicle.
According to the present invention, an automatically opening and closing system for vehicle, which automatically opens and closes an opening/closing member openably and closably mounted on a vehicle through a hinge, comprises: a linking rod to which a tip side joint is swingably linked in said opening/closing member away from an opening/closing central axis of said hinge; a reciprocating member to which a base side joint of said linking rod is swingably linked and which is movably provided to said vehicle in an opening/closing inclination direction so that as said opening/closing member moves from a fully opened state to a fully closed state, said base side joint is separated to an opening/closing direction with respect to said opening/closing member; and a driving means for opening and closing said opening/closing member by linearly reciprocating said reciprocating member in said opening/closing inclination direction.
In the automatically opening and closing system for vehicle according to the present invention, a position of said tip side joint at the time when said opening/closing member comes to a fully closed state is placed on an intersection of a moving locus of said tip side joint and said opening/closing inclination direction; and said tip side joint at the time when said opening/closing member comes to a fully opened state is placed between said opening/closing inclination direction and a tangent parallel to said opening/closing inclination direction and contacting to the moving locus of said tip side joint.
In the automatically opening and closing system for vehicle according to the present invention, positions of said tip side joint at the time when said opening/closing member comes to the fully opened state and the fully closed state are placed on said opening/closing inclination direction, and wherein a swinging angle of the opening/closing direction of said linking rod with respect to said opening/closing inclination direction reaches a maximum at an intermediate opening angle of said opening/closing member and reduces as the opening/closing member moves toward the fully closed state and the fully opened state.
In the automatically opening and closing system for vehicle according to the present invention, said reciprocating member is provided so that as said opening/closing member moves from the fully opened state to the fully closed state, said base side joint is separated in a width direction with respect to said opening/closing member; and a position of said tip side joint at the fully closed state of said opening/closing member is located in vicinity of a position of said base side joint at the fully opened state, and a swinging angle of the width direction of said linking rod with respect to a reciprocating direction of said reciprocating member increases in proportion to opening angles when said opening/closing member moves from the fully closed state to the fully opened state.
In the automatically opening and closing system for vehicle according to the present invention, said hinge is provided at a rear end of a vehicle roof, and said opening/closing member is openably and closably mounted on the rear end of the vehicle; and said reciprocating member is movably provided in said opening/closing inclination direction so that said base side joint is separated to a front side of said vehicle with respect to said opening/closing member as said opening/closing member moves from the fully opened state of being substantially horizontal with respect to the vehicle to the fully closed state of being substantially perpendicular.
In the automatically opening and closing system for vehicle according to present invention, said reciprocating member is movably provided in said width inclination direction so that said base side joint is separated outwards in the width direction of said vehicle with respect to said opening/closing member as the opening/closing member moves from the fully opened state of being substantially horizontal with respect to said vehicle to the fully closed state of being substantially perpendicular.
In the automatically opening and closing system for vehicle according to the present invention, said reciprocating member is disposed between an exterior panel and an interior trim in a pillar adjacent to said opening/closing member of said vehicle; and said linking rod protrudes from an opening formed in said interior trim.
In the automatically opening and closing system for vehicle according to present invention, said driving means has an electric motor and an output pinion gear driven by said electric motor, and wherein said reciprocating member is provided with a rack gear engaged with said output pinion gear.
According to the present invention, the locus of the linking rod can be reduced by suppressing the change in the angles of the linking rod with respect to the reciprocating member, which change depending on the opening/closing motion of the opening/closing member. Therefore, it is possible to reduce the opening formed in the exterior panel or the interior trim of the vehicle and thereby improve the appearance of the vehicle.